I work in Market Research and User Experience Design Research, which is to say, (in short) I study how people interact with your product. When we talk about segmentation research, or segmenting the market, we’re dividing people up into groups of like-minded attitudes, characteristics and behaviors that we think we can predict.
In the business of healthcare, I know there must be a segment of luddites because I’m one of them. It’s not that I am uneducated, or under-served; No, I am fully insured with a very good employer sponsored healthcare plan. (Knock wood and thank you very much, fingers-crossed I can keep my job!) Maybe it is because I carry a lot of baggage in my expectations for what good healthcare is, and I get easily overwhelmed with disparities and discrepancies and misinformation within the systems. It’s not that I don’t respect technology and technological advances in modern healthcare, I am amazed and thrilled by modern miracle of medical science all the time! Rather, I feel like I can sniff out corruption, fraud, waste and abuse just by being in the halls of your institution, or on the pages of your website(s)……so when I am at a hospital or medical office, be it for my own appointment or someone else’s, my emotions can get pretty loud and disturbing.
I call it my undercover syndrome. Like I think I am Charlie’s Fourth Angel; going in, undercover – to expose the patient’s point of view – of how the healthcare industry is making us sick.
My sister is a Physician’s Assistant, and works for a family practice. Which is to say, she is a Junior Doctor, who generalizes in all kinds of things that occur in growing up and growing older. Since we all function as humans who need to see a doctor periodically, she’s been trained to listen well and offer advice and recommendations tailored to your ailment or your situation. You’re supposed to find authority and comfort in her advice. She’s admitted to me that there is a certain kind of patient that just doesn’t want to hear anything she has to say. A patient that distrusts Doctors and medical advice.
I can’t help but wonder how the business school whiz kids who are segmenting the target markets for the next “Medical One” style venture – this time backed by Buffet, Bezos and JP Morgan’s Dimon: (it’s called Haven) are labeling and describing this segment, or if they are even addressing it in their scope and goal.
From CNN’s Business in March 2019: “We believe it is possible to deliver simplified, high-quality, and transparent health care at a reasonable cost,” the (Haven) site says, noting that those who have a regular and reliable source of care and can afford medications and treatments can live more than 80 years, on average, and enjoy a better quality of life. But many Americans don’t have these basics.”
Duh. Folks my parents’ age (72) are just waking up to this fact of reality because of the pandemic and the amount of newly jobless who now also don’t have healthcare, when they need it the most. Remind me please, what makes the system trustworthy, again?